The present invention relates to a method of baking or cooking food in an environment-protecting and safe way.
Methods of baking or cooking are performed in large-kitchen technology, other than in private households, by means of baking or cooking methods in devices that are designed as baking-, hot air-, combined steam devices or steam cooking devices. In the course of baking or cooking, considerable amounts of steam are produced due to steaming and/or the natural moisture of the product to be baked or cooked, which will remain in the cooking space or in the device, respectively, after baking or cooking has finished.
In the case of the previous methods or devices, respectively, the access door is opened after the baking or cooking procedure has finished, so that the amount of steam contained in the device or the cooking space escapes abruptly or almost abruptly.
Since it is not only the matter of considerable amounts of steam, but as a rule also of hot or overheated steam, the operator runs a great risk to be scalded, in particular in the region of his or her face or arms. Nowadays, the risk for the operator is still enhanced since increasingly bad-trained and bad-introduced staff or non-introduced ancillary staff, respectively, operates the devices.
In order to avoid this disadvantage, it has been known from the state of the art to make use of a two-stage door closure. The first opening stage of the closure allows for a controlled and directed escaping of the steam from the cooking space. In this stage, the door is opened by approximately 10 to 20 mm and is mechanically maintained in this position. By a further movement of the closure grip the door subsequently may be opened completely.
This auxiliary mechanism of a two-stage door opening can, however, be overcome by a correspondingly quick operating of the lock, so that no safety with respect to corresponding scalding risks is provided in this case.
Not only with this auxiliary mechanism, but also without his auxiliary mechanism, considerable problems harmful to the environment occur due to the repeated abrupt escaping of steam. First of all, the steam escaping without any hindrances to the kitchen area do relatively quickly lead to a considerable negative effect on the climate in the room and on the staff working therein.
The rooms in which devices of this kind are installed are, due to the distinctly higher contents of dampness in the atmosphere of the room, also suffering in the long term. This expresses itself for instance in the flaking off of colour and/or by the forming of mould on the walls and ceilings.
Another disadvantage is that despite generously calculated sucking devices the abruptly occurring large amounts of steam can also be mastered insufficiently only, or they have to be dimensioned correspondingly largely, which does not only render them expensive in their production, but also in their maintenance.
EP 624 759 A1 discloses a steam device in which considerable, possible overheated amounts of steam are produced during the baking or cooking process, respectively, and remain in the device until the baking or cooking process, respectively, has finished. Some minutes prior to the termination of the cooking process the production of steam is interrupted, and control means operate a device for opening the valve of an escape opening through which the steam may escape.
EP 319 673 A1 discloses a device for controlling a cooking device operated with steam and a method for operating such a device, wherein towards the end of the cooking phase steam is removed from the cooking space to the suction side of a fan through a controllable steam escape opening, and simultaneously, air is supplied to the cooking space through a controllable air supply opening from the pressure channel of the fan. In this way, the steam in the cooking space is to be reduced to such an extent that no more disturbing steam escapes on opening of the oven door.
It is a disadvantage of the method or the devices, respectively, according to the state of the air that an exact removal of the steam both with respect to time and amount is not guaranteed. In accordance with EP 624 759 A1 the letting off of steam starts some minutes prior to the end of the cooking process which, on the one hand, is a very vague indication and, on the other hand, does not guarantee for an exact and complete removal of the steam. In the case of the device according to EP 0 319 673 A1 the steam producer is switched off until the actual end of the program, and the steam prevailing within the oven is reduced to such an extent that hardly any more steam escapes on opening of the oven door. This shows that some steam remains in each case, which then escapes abruptly on opening of the door.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a method of the kind initially mentioned, with which a minimal duration of time is achieved with simultaneous optimum removal of steam.
In accordance with the invention, the program control of the device initiates the removal of dampness, as a function of the dampness in the cooking space determined, prior to the termination of the baking or cooking process, the duration of the removal of dampness depending on the dampness the cooking space determined.